Barnhart is blogging this morning that the little birdies are telling him that CBS may not be the only network to strike a 15-year deal with the SEC.

I’m hearing that ESPN is thinking seriously about also signing a 15-year deal with the SEC as well. But this deal may have an interesting twist. Under this deal ESPN would purchase all of the remaining television rights that CBS does not own.

Why would ESPN do this? Simple. If ESPN owned the remaining rights, it could put several SEC games on its various platforms (ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN360) and then, whatever rights it had left and did not want, it could sell back to a group like Raycom or even Comcast. Distribution, however, could be an issue because a lot of cable systems do not carry ESPNU or 360 on their basic package. And those distribution issues could ultimately complicate the deal. Some of those distribution issues could be addressed by video streaming on the Internet, which is going to be a big part of these future TV deals.

Now to do all this ESPN would have to pony up some pretty big bucks over a long period of time. But the network has shown it is willing to pay handsomely for college football.

The money – which is beginning to look like it might settle north of $100 million per year – is just short of mindboggling. Keep in mind that the conference members split a total pot of $127 million this year.

Yeah, I agree with you there for sure. I just like the current arrangement with CBS then allowing either espn, raycom, or comcast pick up remaining games. I’m just more than a little bothered by espn controling the entire slate of games that is outside of cbs’s contract.

ESPN has shown recklessness when they get to program games all by themselves. Who goes for a 530pm or 9pm start? The current setup is great, mostly because the start times are staggered, and almost always immovable…1230, 330, and 745 (with the occasional weird 6pm or whatever). It just makes me nervous…I don’t want the WWL throwing in some 11am ET starts, or worse yet, force the SEC’s hand in playing some Thurs. or Fri. games…

Quote Of The Day

“I’m thrilled for this day to get here, and I’m excited to find out how a lot of these new guys learn. These practices are not easy, and the idea is to create adversity for your team and find out who your leaders are.” — Kirby Smart, Chattanooga Times Free Press, 8/1/17